The mysterious maze
by ravenclawjedi
Summary: Emery and Vanessa are best friends. But after the mysterious disappearance of Oliver, Vanessa's oldest friend, Emery's grandpa's secretary turns out not to be what she claimed to be, and began to pursue the two girls. When they stumble upon an entrance to a mysterious labyrinth marked by a triangle, what will happen? (Sorry, not sure how to summarize quite well. T for fighting.)
1. Chapter 1

**Hi! I'm usually not a fan of OCs, but I thought maybe I should try it out, since everyone seems to have one. So, here's the result. They're not entirely OC, based off of me and my friends, but they carry our flaws as well as our strengths. They are not the type of OC that is automatically the best at everything, nor are they powerful. Yeah. These guys are people too.**

"Vanessa," Emery focused her mischievous hazel eyes on me, "Relax! We're on summer break!" She bounced up and down; causing her caramel-brown pixie cut hair to bounce.

I shifted her gaze to the elevator panel. There was something queer about it couldn't quite put my finger on. I tried to think about other things. It was indeed summer. We had just walked from the school to the headquarters were Emery's grandpa had an office, on the very top floor. He would drive us to my house, where Emery was sleeping over. It was summer, and we had our school bags, plus Emery had an overnight bag packed for tonight.

"You know I don't like the secretary." I whispered to her. The secretary sat at the front desk, and greeted us like we were at the gates of the underworld.

"What is it about her? She's just an ugly spindly woman with some yellow teeth and a bad manicure." Emery scoffed. Then her face turned serious.

"You have a logical point about the woman," Emery said with a serious look, "She might scratch you with a nail and give you an infection!" Emery laughed, and I joined in. We teased each other often.

"Come on. You know I'm not that much of a coward. I'm only afraid of realistic things." I said seriously, "Like, what if she bites me and I become a zombie like her?" We laughed again.

"Pathetic. Let's get serious." Emery scoffed, again. "We all know she's a vampire." Again, this was received by laughter.

When the elevator dinged, I stepped out into the air-conditioned floor. The last floor was for the Head of Agency, Emery's grandfather. They had a publishing company, which was convenient since Emery loved reading. It's one of the things the two of us had in common.

I was often bothered at school for reading, usually by older girls. The trio was led by Jade Beryl, a girl with frizzy black hair that was usually in a messy bun, with cocoa skin and Black eyes. She might have been pretty, if she didn't slather twenty layers of make-up on. She was flanked by her entourage, a blonde girl named Mimi. Her name wasn't Mimi, but that was her 'I'm-popular-I-need-a-girly-name'. She was really skinny, and had tanned skin and brown eyes. The last in the group was the brunette GJ, short for her real name which she hated and Junior. No one knew her real name because she would murder anyone who did on account of knowing too much. She wore no makeup, but she still wore short-shorts and Aeropostale shirts. What was it with having a brand plastered on your clothes that gave you a high status? Well, they threw the dodge-balls in PE specifically at me and Emery, and they teased me about being a nerd. I just laughed and said it was a compliment, and Emery seemed to have an ability to hit back to balls with more force. Once she even knocked out Mimi with a head-shot. I wondered how, I mean, Emery was stick thin and hadn't worked out in her life…

I was snapped from my thoughts by the clicking of nails on a table. I looked at the source of the clicking.

There she was. Dr. Acaenae. Yeah, having a doctorate as a secretary is rare, but since it was such a small company she also did lots of editing work.

"Hello, children," She said. She took a deep sniff as if we were fresh baked cookies, "How wasss ssschool?" She always sounded like she was hissing.

"Fine. Where's Mr. Griffin?" I asked, making sure to be polite.

"He'sss busssy. Why don't you ssspend time with me?" She bared her yellowing teeth, and I shuddered.

"No thanks. We'll wait in the lounge." The employee lounge was here on the top floor so old Mr. Griffin wouldn't have to move too much to take his lunch break and if anything happened he'd have employees to help him quickly. We walked into the room and took a seat.

"I'm so excited. I can throw pillows at you, and we can make fun of movies, and just relax because it's summer!" Emery said, flicking my arm repeatedly. It flicked her back, and she poked me, and we ended up with a violent poking war.

"Well, well, well," A familiar voice spat. I looked up to find Jade in her sweat pants and bun, still holding her school bag, which was a hot-pink leopard patterned purse-thing. She tossed it at Emery and the latter grabbed it and dangled it over a fish tank. Jade squealed and snatched it back.

"Control your pet, Vanessa." Jade said.

"My apologies. Where are your pets?" I asked. She didn't have the usual entourage with her.

"They're not 'pets'. They're friends, and unlike yours, they're sophisticated." She sneered.

"Well I, unlike them, have my rabies shot." Emery shot back.

"Em, are you just gonna ignore that she used the word 'sophisticated'?" I said. Emery whistled and clapped. Jade rolled her eyes.

"Well, what are you losers doing here? I have to speak to the publisher about a book." Jade bragged.

"I didn't know you could read." Emery said, imitating Draco from the Chamber of Secrets.

"Okay, I'll be serious now, we're here to see Emery's grandfather," I responded. "And what book? Did you write one?" I was curious as always.

"No. Not me. Her. My sis is Cassandra." She dragged a girl who looked about ten years old out of a chair. She had chocolate skin and frizzy black hair like Jade, but her face wasn't in a cruel sneer. She looked shy. She waved, looked at my shirt, and grinned.

"Oh, I love that movie! Back to the Future!" She told me, then her sister gave her a quick flick on the side of the head.

"Ugh. It's like you made me take you to a loser convention." Jade groaned.

"Cool." Emery said nonchalantly, "You'd fit right in."

"You think you're so clever don't you?" Jade snapped. "Well, if you're so smart, why do you have such stupid hair?" She pointed at Emery's short cut caramel hair. "You too. Bangs are way out of style." She pointed to me now. I touched by chocolate brown bangs. My hair reached my elbows, and I never cared if I was in style or not.

"Leave us alone or I'll make sure you go away." I said. Emery could call on security.

"Are you gonna send me where you sent Oliver?" Jade sneered. Her sister looked shocked.

"It's not my fault he went missing! I wasn't even with him!" I said, and my voice cracked. "Come on, Em. Let's go spend time with the secretary." I dragged her out into the first room.

But what we saw wasn't Dr. Acaenae.

**Hi, posted in a hurry for my friend's birthday, happy b-day to the real life version of Emery Griffin. Please review, sorry for cliffhanger, I'll update soon.**


	2. We go in our own tower of terror

**Hi! Ok, sorry I was gone for so long, but I have a ton of stuff to do in real life. School is starting next week. (insert sarcastic yay here.). So here's the next chapter. If any of you are wondering, Jade is based on a girl who bullied me and my best friend in real life. Our reaction was also similar.**

Ok, Dr. Acaenae was never pretty. She wore those sneakers that 'breathed' for some reason, but it never went well with her business look. Her claws were always jagged but roughly painted a deep blood red, and her hair was in a scraggly bun. She wore a brown jacket with a brown top underneath, and she wore some darker brown slacks. Her teeth looked like she hadn't seen a doctor in her entire life, and that had to have been some time, she looked ancient.

But now she looked worse.

When Emery and I walked in, she was standing behind her desk, but the desk was overturned. Papers were scattered across the floor, but she didn't pick them up. She turned around and I saw that her normally bloodshot eyes were now red, and she flicked a serpentine tongue at us. Her pant leg was torn and I could see some scaled on her leg. Her claws were now actual claws.

"What on Earth _are_ you?" Emery asked, looking around for something to beat her over the head with. Emery was like that.

"I am a Ssscythian Dracaenae. A sssnake woman. And I'm not here to hurt you." Dr. Acaenae hissed. I had trouble believing her intentions. "Excussse the appearance, a pesssky little demigod dared to bother me. But you two Half-bloodsss, I have much better expectationsss from you."

Emery stiffened. "What's a half-blood? Is that like Half-and-half cream except for monsters?"

"No! It'sss in your blood. You are a demigod, and so is your friend." She explained. I had studied Greek Myth in school, but now I was sure I was hallucinating. "You have one mortal parent, but alssso one godly parent." She hissed.

Emery and I began to slowly back towards the elevator. I wish I had a cell phone. My dad always said it was dangerous for me to have one, but said I wasn't ready to know why. And Emery didn't have one either. So we were pretty screwed.

"I won't hurt you. My army needsss you. Have you ever wondered, dear Emery, why your ssscumbag of a father never ssspoke to your mother again? Why he never even wrote to you?" She moved closer to Emery and began to stroke her hair.

"Oh, and Vanesssssa. Sssuch a ssstrange cassse. Ssso like your mother, except…" The creature now slithered towards me and took a strand of my dark brown hair in her claws. "Your hair isss a bit… off." She sliced a lock of my hair, and it spiraled towards the ground.

"Join me, and you'll get all the answersss you crave. You'll find out the truth." She finished with a flick of her forked tongue, and looked at us expectantly.

"Can- Can I ask my dad about this first?" I asked uncertainly. She laughed in three hisses, then turned serious.

"You are a sssmart girl. Your father doesssn't matter anymore. Your mother doesss. Ssshe wasss a godesss, but sshe never cared about you. Sssame with Msss. Griffin'ssss father. They are from myth, yet they are real. They came to Earth and had you, then left you abandoned. Ssshow them who isss bossss. We will rule the world. A new era." Dr. Acaenae finished, and she was so close I could smell her breath. It was surprisingly minty.

Emery's face was hard to read. Her hazel eyes darted from the monster before us to the door. Then the door burst open, and Jade and Cassandra came in.

"Oh my gosh, what is all that noise?" Jades grunted, and then she looked at the monster and shrieked then ducked behind Cassandra.

"Another Half-blood…" Dr. A slithered towards Cassandra, who shook slightly in fear. While she was distracted, I got up and punched the call button for the elevator. Emery followed, and we were about to step in when the Dracaenae lunged at Cassandra and began to glow green. She froze in her spot, and Jade pulled Cassandra into the elevator. As the doors closed, the snake woman unfroze and dashed for the stairs.

"Go, go! Hit the ground floor button!" Emery yelled in my ear, while Cassandra looked like she was about to cry. The cheery elevator music mocked us.

"Shhh." I hushed Emery. "She'll be going to the ground floor, you saw how fast she is. I'm going for the second floor, then we'll go out the fire escape and into the back alley. It's not too far from the police station." I pressed the down arrow, the realized what was wrong with the panel.

It had three arrows. One for up, one for down, and one that was just a triangle in the middle.

I had pressed the middle.

The elevator dropped quickly, leaving my stomach somewhere above us, and Jade and Cassandra shrieked while Emery laughed and held up her hands like she was on a rollercoaster.

The metal box shuddered to a stop, and the doors dinged open. We stumbled out onto a brick hallway, and I mean floor to ceiling bricks. There was a sign beside us, but it was written in scratchy letters and I had some trouble reading. I had never been taken to a doctor about it, but my dad was sure I had dyslexia. Emery had been diagnosed with ADHD, which explains her energy outbursts.

"That says: **Labyrinth ahead, turn back while you can.**" Jade read. She turned to us, and I saw her worried for once.

"We don't have much choice. Either this or the monster." I said. Cassandra grabbed Jade's hand, I grabbed a torch from the wall, and Emery marched. Our Journey begins.

**Okay, so I'll update as much as possible this week, since it's my last week of summer. I have a special thing planned for this week. Starting tomorrow, Monday, I'm going to change my profile pick daily to something funny, just because it's almost school time and I want to do something fun. This means that the story icon will no longer be Taz from Starship, my former profile pic, but some random crap. I'll find a labyrinth pic for it later. **

**Please review, and I'd love to read about any OCs you might have :)**


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